Preference of Interactive Electronic Versus Traditional Learning Resources by University of Michigan Medical Students during the First Year Histology Component

Abstract

Histology or microanatomy is an integral component of most first year medical curricula. As histology is heavily based on the review and analysis of images, modern educational resources are increasingly used for teaching this subject. These novel didactic approaches often supplement more traditional offerings of the material, such as lectures and laboratory sessions. After completion of their M1 histology component, University of Michigan medical students participated in a voluntary survey about their study habits and their use of various histology learning resources and how this usage changed over time. The data presented in this analysis demonstrate a strong preference of these students for studying histology with electronic rather than traditional learning resources. In particular, students' use of scheduled didactic opportunities decreased over the progression of the course. Students also exhibited a strong inclination to study histology individually rather than in study groups. These reported insights in students' preferences suggest a need to develop and update educational tools for teaching this very visual subject.

Learning histology – dental and medical students' study strategies

“…Figure 3 shows the answers to the same question given by corresponding medical and dental classes. The answers given by this medical school class (Class of 2015) are very similar to those published earlier (Class of 2014) (16). Although a majority of dental students also reported that they 'Always' (score of 5) or 'Frequently' (score of 4) study histology alone and this study modus also showed an increase over the progression of the dental histology component, many more medical students reported that they learned histology alone (a 4.11 vs. a 4.64 class average score with a highly significant P-value of <0.001).…”

“…We recently analysed the choices made by medical students at the University of Michigan in selecting between different resources and adapting specific learning strategies during their M1 histology component (16). Medical students were found to ª 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S.…”

Correlating students' educational background, study habits, and resource usage with learning success in medical histology

“…As reported previously, first‐year medical students generally prefer interactive electronic learning resources for histology over scheduled traditional learning opportunities (Holaday et al, ). The use of most of these electronic resources increased as the academic year progressed, whereas traditional didactic resources were used less.…”

“…Small group learning has been reported to improve academic performance in higher education (Herreid, ; Lou et al, ). A previous report indicates that University of Michigan first‐year medical students overwhelmingly prefer to study histology alone rather than in small groups, a tendency that increases over time (Holaday et al, ). Linking the self‐reported frequency of studying alone with final cumulative histology examination scores indicates that students, who studied at least occasionally with classmates, score slightly better (Table ).…”

Croatian university students' use and perception of electronic resources

“…In contrast to research showing that students prefer printed sources, a number of studies, especially those published in the past few years, indicate that students are more inclined to use electronic resources (Agboola, 2010;Harrington, 2009;Holaday, Selvig, Purkiss, & Hortsch, 2013;Ji et al, 2014;Pandita, 2012;Ranganadham & Babu, 2012;Thanuskodi, 2011;Uçak, 2007). The students emphasize ease of use, search, and access to information (Arya & Talukdar, 2010;Beard, Dale, & Hutchins, 2007;Kandpal et al, 2013;Ranganadham & Babu, 2012;Sudhier & Seethalekshmi, 2011;Uçak, 2007), recency of information (Pandita, 2012;Porumbeanu, 2009;Shelburne, 2009;Sudhier & Seethalekshmi, 2011;Sujatha & Mudhol, 2008;Uçak, 2007), availability of resources (Shelburne, 2009), access to a wide range of information (Beard et al, 2007;Pandita, 2012;Porumbeanu, 2009;Ranganadham & Babu, 2012), saving time (Ranganadham & Babu, 2012;Shelburne, 2009;Sujatha & Mudhol, 2008), and reducing costs (Hernon et al, 2007;Ji et al, 2014).…”